Running 135 miles across Death Valley and back in July and other ultra adventures

Scatter my ashes here...

scatter my ashes in the desert...

Friday, January 10, 2014

The Snark Bark Returns...

The Great Antarctic Ice Sheet (formerly known as Fort Collins) has returned. Today it was windy as hell and sort of cold. Not as cold as it was windy.

I took the day off from running and went for a walk with the girls. The girls cross the ice sheets in the neighborhood carefully. They know.

I was so sore from those Maniacs! My legs hurt a little on Thursday but today they were screaming! I sat in the hot tub and later I did some work with the foam roller. Tomorrow's 30 miler should clean them out.

Isabelle checks out the Great Antarctic Ice Sheet. She's hoping for warm weather to melt some of it. Tomorrow could be a challenge running through the streets, before and after it melts. It's either a slick sheet of ice, or slush. Fun.

It's supposed to be warm tomorrow, which I doubt after today, but they say it's supposed to hit nearly 60 degrees. The polar vortex finally left us alone. Except it left some clouds in the sky which ruined what was supposed to be a view of the Aurora Borealis last night. We don't normally get to see that this far south. Damn vortex.

Speaking of the vortex, I had these awful work nightmares twice this week. I can't remember the first dream I had but last night I dreamed of being back in ICU. Somehow I got floated to ICU and they gave me this guy who was detoxing from alcohol, on an Ativan drip, and I had to get report from this other nurse but our shoelaces were tied together in a tight little knot. He wanted to give me report and go home but he couldn't leave because our shoes were knotted up together. Then I couldn't find the Pyxis or the bathroom, either.

And if that wasn't nightmarish enough, then they made me attend this meeting with people I had to work with at the hospital- including some of my least favorite ex-coworkers- and I was so bored out of my mind that I peeled all the skin off my fingers and I had these shredded ribbons of skin hanging off my hands. WTF!

I think I'm having those work nightmares because over the past few days I've read too many reports in medical newsletters talking about nurses being fatigued and regretting the clinical decisions they make, and also hearing from former coworkers that the hospital is going through the motions of yet another Magnet status attempt or something like that.

Well, duh! on both counts! If Magnet really meant anything it would have made working conditions better for nurses a long time ago. All it does is perpetuate the cycles of the enslavement culture.

Since Magnet is nothing but a piece of bling to put on an organization's website and means nothing in terms of real clinical quality, but the public doesn't know that, it will only be a matter of time. When hospitals get their Magnet designation, they always rush to announce it again in the paper about their latest "award" in an giant self-congratulatory public relations circle jerk, as if it means something other than they bought their way to another award, and I wish the public would EFFing wake up about health care and big corporations!

It's simply obesification of the corporate world. Unlike human beings who get big bellies or big butts, corporations gain upper body fat. All the lard goes straight to the top.

And I must be doing better now that I've been out of it for 2 months, because my sense of snark has returned.

Last night I got the good news from my brother that he, my sister-in-law, and my niece Jenny will be up here visiting in March so Jenny can look at Colorado State and CU in Boulder. Jenny and I have our birthdays three days apart in March and we will celebrate both of ours, Jenny will be 17.

I really don't see Jenny going to CSU, it's not really her type of town, but Boulder would fit her well. I was so excited, having Jenny and all of them here will be like a birthday present for me.

That didn't stop my 4 years younger bro from giving me shit about getting old. We have a similar sense of humor so of course it deteriorated...

And it's the middle of January, almost. We're three weeks past solstice. Tonight, for the first time, I noticed that the sun was up a little longer at the end of the day, it was light past five o'clock! I told you it's spring!

We Keep On Running...

About Me

I started running in 1984 and ran my first ultra in 1991. I wanted to run Badwater ever since I heard about Ben Jones cooling himself down with an ice-filled body bag. I achieved my longtime dream in July 2008 when I crossed the Badwater finish line in just over 47 hours. In 2011, I ran the race again, then returned on foot to Badwater, a round trip of 270 miles.
My health, fitness, ability, and desire to run ultramarathons are a gift I can give to others who face challenges to their health and well-being.
I am a health coach and cancer exercise trainer, and I'm passionate about empowering people to live life at their best.
My dream is to transform health care so it is truly about health and care, and bring the nursing profession into modern times by elevating the grassroots voices of working nurses.
Life is an ultra, and every finish line is the starting line of the next adventure.

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photo credit: Kristi Mayo/Mile 90 Photography

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The posts expressed on this blog ever since its inception are, have always been, and always will be in the future, my personal opinions. I occasionally stray to topics outside of running, from nursing, health care and social justice issues, to cell phones, menopause and beer, and those are also my personal opinions, and they belong exclusively to me, not to any individual person outside of my body or any corporate, government, profit-driven or not-for-profit entity...full text of disclaimer